


those summer days stay with us

by codedredalert



Series: In These Warring Times [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Childhood Friends, Family, Fluff, Gen, Growing Up, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 04:06:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7298902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/codedredalert/pseuds/codedredalert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iwa didn’t know a lot of things, Oikawa realised. He believed all sorts of silly things about magic that weren’t true.  Oikawa would laugh, but most of the time, Iwa listened so intently that he couldn’t, because Oikawa felt like the most important person in the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	those summer days stay with us

Oikawa Tooru was a prince, because Father was the King. Then, there was Mother, and Mama, and Iwa.

In the mornings, Oikawa had to sit in the library with Mr. Icker, who was always mean and boring and made him read words out one by one and write letters ‘til his hand ached.

In the afternoons, he got to play with Iwa. Iwa got to play all day, which Oikawa thought wasn’t fair at all. But Iwa couldn’t play pretend by himself anyway, so it was alright.

Oikawa always got to choose what to play when they played pretend. Once he played a dragon and Iwa played a knight. Oikawa didn’t manage to burn down the tower because Iwa was too fast and caught him before he could climb the tree. That was okay though, because the tree was a lot taller than Oikawa expected, and a little bit scary, though Oikawa wasn’t scared at all, of course! Anyway Oikawa beat Iwa too sometimes, like the time when Iwa was a mountain raider and Oikawa was a knight. Oikawa tackled him so hard that they both fell into the orchard stream and got yelled at by one of the servants. 

Dinner had to be eaten with Mother. The food looked and smelled good, but Oikawa could never eat more than a few bites before he wasn’t hungry any more. Mother barely ate either.

Supper was with Iwa and Mama! Mama told them stories while she sewed. Often, she was too tired and she fell asleep before she finished the story. Oikawa never minded. He and Iwa knew that Mama worked very hard.

When it was time to go to bed, Mama walked Oikawa back to his room, a really big room with too huge a bed. Sometimes if he asked really nicely and made sad faces, Mama let him stay with her and Iwa for the night. She always let him stay when it was his birthday.

Summers were best because Oikawa’s birthday was in summer. The King held a feast, and lots of people gave Oikawa presents and said he was handsome and that his clothes were nice. The really best part of Oikawa’s birthday though was when he and Iwa swapped pillows for the night. Oikawa had lots of pillows, but Iwa’s was the nicest because it was crunchy with straw instead of feathers.

During the summers, Oikawa’s skin burned bright red and peeled before it turned a bit brown, and Iwa’s turned _really_ brown. He let Oikawa grip his hand when Mama put the ointment on Oikawa’s face and neck.

This was how Oikawa spent his first four summers.

===/\===

Mr. Icker once asked who “Iwa” was, because Oikawa had to write about his day in an essay and of course Iwa was in it. Mr. Icker’s face looked like he bit into a lemon when Oikawa told him the answer. He said it was “dangerous” and “inappropriate” because Iwaizumi was Iwa’s private name. He started Oikawa’s lesson on magecraft that day, and Oikawa learned that if a mage wanted to curse someone, the first thing they needed was a name.

Mr. Icker always called Oikawa “Orren”, never “Oikawa” or “Tooru”. Oikawa thought about that and kind of understood. He didn’t want Mr. Icker to call him “Tooru”.

Oikawa didn’t understand why it was dangerous to let Iwa call him “Tooru”. Iwa would never give Oikawa’s name to someone who would use it in a curse, and anyway Iwa couldn’t write. Mr. Icker insisted though, so Oikawa made sure to write “Ila” instead of “Iwa” in his essays from then on.

===/\===

Oikawa’s brother was born in winter.

He was actually only Oikawa’s half-brother, because he didn’t share Mother, only Father. He looked more like Iwa than Oikawa, with the same skin that browned but didn’t burn and true black hair.

Oikawa didn’t have to share Mama or Iwa with Kageyama Tobio.

===/\===

In his fifth and sixth summers, Oikawa played with Iwa less because he had to stay indoors with Mr. Icker for lessons the whole day. The only good part about it was that Oikawa got to learn fencing, and then he could teach Iwa. They still compared who was taller. It was still Iwa.

Iwa didn’t know a lot of things, Oikawa realised. He believed all sorts of silly things about magic that weren’t true.  Oikawa would laugh, but most of the time, Iwa listened so intently that he couldn’t, because Oikawa felt like the most important person in the world.

“You know a lot, Tooru,” Iwa said, and Oikawa’s heart burst into bright spirals. Iwa didn’t say Oikawa’s name often, but when he did, it _mattered_. When Iwa said his name, Oikawa felt like one day he really would be great enough a mage-king to have his story told to princes in history books and legends.

===/\===

He didn’t remember exactly when it happened, but sometime during his seventh summer, a river started flowing from Oikawa’s heart down to his right ankle.

Mama said it was magic, that all mages got a mage-mark like that when their magic was strong enough. She said it made him special, and that someday, he was going to be a strong and wise ruler, like the great mage kings and their champions in the bedtime stories she told.

Mother just nodded and said it was about time.

No one said anything about the canyon which appeared on Iwa’s left shoulder, but Iwa stopped taking his shirt off when he swam that summer.

===/\===

A week later, Tobio broke through.

That’s what they called it, when a royal got their mage-mark. Breaking through. Oikawa learned that after he got his river. Tobio’s mage-mark was the jagged peak of a lonely mountain, overcast with milling clouds across his tiny chest.

The youngest prince could be the greatest mage of the century, people were saying. The empire was in uproar.

That night, Mother sent a servant to tell Oikawa to see her in the morning after Mr. Icker’s lessons.

===/\===

“Good morning, Mother,” Oikawa bowed and she looked to Mr. Icker.

“The boy slurs his consonants.”

Oikawa did it on purpose, and he hid a vicious tiny victory smile with his bow. Mr. Icker probably knew it but he couldn’t do anything with Mother there. Served him right for not letting Oikawa go out and play in the afternoons during the whole of last week.

“Thank you, that will be all,” she said and Mr. Icker bowed out of the room stiffly.

“Tooru,” Mother said. “My son, come here and show me your face.”

Oikawa straightened out of the bow and walked up to her properly, imagining the heavy book on top of his head from his etiquette lessons. Mother was very beautiful, and Oikawa had only ever seen her wear light blue. Mama always made Oikawa wear light blue to see Mother. Oikawa suddenly wished he had wet his hair, because it stuck up at the sides and top.

“You are not a child anymore,” Mother said. “This callousness in your lessons must stop.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“I know you are slurring your words to give Icker grief, but you only harm yourself and your own future this way,” she added sharply. Her gaze glanced off the curves of Oikawa’s face and seemed vaguely disappointed. He tried to stand straighter but she was so much taller than him. The layers of her dress made him feel small.

“I have told the servants to address you as Orren from now on,” Mother said after a moment. “Regardless of Kaelen’s breakthrough, you are the Crown Prince. There are great things expected of you. Do you understand, Tooru?”

“Yes, Mother,” he said carefully. He made sure to pronounce the M and the R carefully this time. She doesn’t seem to notice.

===/\===

“Tooru,” Iwa said when Oikawa met him outside.

“Mother said you have to call me Orren now,” Oikawa told him mournfully.

Iwa took a moment to respond and Oikawa had to actually look to see if Iwa heard him.

“We were told,” Iwa said at length, stiffly. “Prince Orren, then.”

It sounded terrible in his mouth and voice and the moment it crossed his lips Oikawa knew it was wrong. The sounds didn’t make that looping pure joy from summers in the orchard. It felt like Oikawa had cracked open a jeweller’s box but it was empty.

===/\===

“Prince Orren,” Mama said when Oikawa went to visit her, and there was that resounding wrongness again. Oikawa’s new fake name was _wrong_ and he _wouldn’t_ stand for it. Not from Mama.

“Tooru,” Oikawa said, gently and firmly and Mama looked troubled. 

“Your Highness,” she tried instead, shaking her head. 

That hurt even worse.

“I--” Oikawa started, lost for words. “Mama,” he said, pleading with her with the only name he knew her by. “Mama,” he repeated, dropping to his knees, and she gets off her chair to drop onto her own knees and Oikawa’s heart breaks at the sound of her weight hitting the hard stone floor. “Mama, I’m still Tooru. Mama, please don’t do this. Please.”

The veins on Mama’s hands popped up under her brown skin, and he took her hands in his own lighter, smaller hands and kissed them. She nodded and they both broke into tears.

===/\===

Iwa wouldn’t call him Tooru no matter how he pleaded.

 

**Author's Note:**

> here's [the tumblr for this AU](http://highfantasyhaikyuu.tumblr.com) bc the world is wider than oikawa's childhood ohohohoho come say hi 0u0


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